Graph-Based Instance Traceability for Building Product Reuse

Tracing information related to the life cycle of building products supports decision-making for circular construction. However, current digital tools and standards in construction primarily address product identification at the type rather than instance level, resulting in information loss that hinders reuse. To trace products across projects at the instance level, we propose a graph-based workflow that maps globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) of element instances. While information continuity can be established manually, preliminary workflow evaluation in a case study reveals that manual GUID verification is impractical. We conclude that realising a digital reuse supply chain requires software automation for instance-level identification.

Proceedings of the 2026 European Conference on Computing in Construction